One-Shot
Summary: You told your mother you were seeing someone to get her off your back. Now your parents are coming into town and you need someone to play said boyfriend. Somehow you manage to bribe Commander Reyes into helping you out.
Words: 6156
Fandom: Overwatch
Characters: Gabriel Reyes x You
Warnings: none
Note: First time attempting to write Gabe. Fair warning, though, I do not play OW. I just stumbled across Reaper on AO3 and fell utterly in love with him and his alter ego, so if that is a no-no for you, turn back now. As always, a gigantic thank you to my amazing beta, @jheeley, who has no interest in OW whatsoever but ended up being enthusiastic about Gabe anyhow. I don’t know what I’d do without you, dearest.
This is part of my Valentine’s Day series. If you’d like to read other characters’ shenanigans, I’ve linked them below.
Standing in Blackwatch’s kitchen, waiting for the coffee to finish brewing, you looked down at your phone in growing horror. The text your mum had sent you seemed to mock you:
Don’t forget our dinner reservation on Valentine’s Day, dear. We’re already looking forward to seeing you. I take it you’re finally bringing that boyfriend of yours along? So excited to meet him! Love, Mum.
Just before Christmas, you’d told your mum you’d been seeing someone purely so she’d stop pestering you. But you weren’t dating. Not even close. Working at Blackwatch left you little enough spare time as it was and the idea of spending that precious time with some boring guy on an awkward first date didn’t appeal to you at all. You didn’t mind being single as you were fully content with working on your career at the moment, but, unsurprisingly, your family thought differently. Each time you went to see them, which wasn’t often, you had to endure sly remarks about your relationship status. The fact that your siblings were happily married and your sister was pregnant only increased the pressure everyone put on you to find someone to settle down with. Your opinion on the matter was brushed aside with some pitying looks thrown your way.
Why was it so incomprehensible for your family to accept that not everyone dreamt of the white picket fence?
Alas, here you were. Valentine’s Day was next week and your mum fully expected you to be accompanied by that elusive boyfriend you’d told her as little as possible about. They’d decided to come out to see you and combine that with celebrating the hated holiday. An evening filled with your parents that you had no way of getting out of. You knew you couldn’t show up to that alone and endure the condescending comments all night. You just couldn’t.
“Agent.”
You’d have to find someone who’d not only be willing to pose as your boyfriend but who also didn’t have any prior engagements.
“Agent?”
Who did you know that could possibly be bribed to play along?
“Agent!”
You jumped out of your skin at the loud voice in your ear and the hand clamped onto your shoulder. Startled, you turned around to look at … Commander Reyes.
Shit.
“Commander!” you squeaked. “Sorry, I totally spaced out. Did you want something?”
The corner of his mouth quirked up in a tiny smirk. “Just access to the coffee.”
Blinking owlishly, you looked at the machine. You’d been too wrapped up in your mounting panic attack to realise that it was ready.
“Right.” Smiling at him apologetically, you poured two mugs and slid one over to your commanding officer. “You know, you might be the only other person on base who’s as much of an addict as I am.”
“I’m well aware. You’ve stolen the last cup of coffee from me often enough,” he said, adding milk to his mug. “Milk?”
“Hmmm,” you replied absent-mindedly, staring back down at your phone as you contemplated what to type.
“You okay, Agent?”
You looked up with a raised eyebrow. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
“You did ignore the coffee, which, knowing you, is cause enough for concern,” he joked before glancing at your phone. “You went awfully white there for a second. Bad news?”
Sighing dramatically, you said, “Family.”
“Ah. They’re being a pain in your ass?”
“Yup,” you mumbled. “Why are family dinners a thing? There’s no actual need to see each other, is there? Why can’t we all just judge each other silently, from a distance, to keep the peace?”
Oh wow! Never have I ever been so okay with reading something that long on tumblr. For serious! It just flowed. It was so sharp, that I missed some things and had to reread paragraphs. Fanfiction goals, my dudes.
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